Places + Prices: Tokyo

undefined

It would take a lifetime to exhaust Tokyo—particularly when it comes to restaurants. Ask four Tokyo gourmets for their favorite haunts and you'll get four entirely different lists. The following are my own highly subjective, only occasionally obscure, recommendations for places to stay, dishes to eat, and sights to see.

The country and city code for Tokyo is 81-3. Prices quoted are for September 2007.

Lodging

The comfortable and well-located Hotel Okura has an excellent retro bar and a branch of one of the city's best and most expensive sushi restaurants, Kyubei (3582-0111; okura.com/tokyo; doubles, $274–$490; sushi, $47–$188). The top nine floors of Tokyo Midtown—the city's new eating and shopping complex—belong to the Ritz-Carlton (3423-8000; ritzcarlton.com; doubles, $531–$653). The Grand Hyatt in nearby Roppongi Hills has an equally extensive, if slightly dated, roster of restaurants and shops (4333-1234; tokyo.grand.hyatt.com; doubles, $481–$670).

Dining

The freshest sushi is at the Tsukiji Fish Market, where the tuna auction starts around 4:30 a.m. Arrange a tour through your hotel, and don't wear fancy shoes. Plenty of food stalls line the alleyways around the market, selling à la carte sushi as well as seto, or set menus. Sushi Dai is my choice for the best in the market (5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku; 3547-6797; sushi, $17–$30), although many raw-fish fanatics also swear by Daiwa Sushi (5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku; 3547-6807; set menu, $26). Tokyo's grandest sushi house is Kyubei, in Ginza (8-7-6 Ginza, Chuo-ku; 3571-6523; sushi, $82–$245). Another favorite is Sushi Kanesaka, run by a young veteran of Kyubei (Misuzu Bldg. B1, 8-10-3 Ginza, Chuo-ku; 5568-4411; sushi, $25–$163).

The most traditional (and pricey) style of dining is kaiseki, the cuisine of the Kyoto emperors. In Tokyo, Tsujitome is the most established and exclusive kaiseki restaurant, serving elaborate, multicourse dinners in private rooms, many decorated according to the tastes of regular customers (1-8-5 Moto-Akasaka, Minato-ku; 3403-3984; prix fixe, $204–$351). You'll need similar wads of cash, and ideally an introduction, to enjoy the Kobe beef, grilled teppanyaki-style, at Steak Shiozawa, in the basement of a building near Ginza Station (Mita Bldg. B2F, 8-3-10 Ginza; 3572-7613; set menu, $300–$500). At Ryugin, chef and sommelier Seiji Yamamoto's Franco-centric wine list is among the city's most original (Side Roppongi Bldg. 1F, 7-17-24 Roppongi, Minato-ku; 3423-8006; entrées, $123–$287).

For high style, Dazzle, in the Mikimoto Building in Ginza, was fashionable a little while ago, and the elaborate room is still worth a look (2-4-12 Ginza, Chuo-ku; 5159-0991; entrées, $16–$32). Tenichi, Tokyo's famous tempura destination (6-6-5 Ginza, Chuo-ku; 3571-1949; entrées, $82–$653), has found competition in Kondo, on the 9th floor of a small office building in Ginza. Mr. Kondo is famous for his ingredients, like mountain yams and arc-shell clams (5-5-13 Ginza, Chuo-ku; 5568-0923; entrées, $66–$123). Everybody in Tokyo has a favorite fried-pork tonkatsu joint, but if you want an elaborate tasting of the fanciest pig products, go to Butagumi (2-24-9 Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku; 5466-6775; entrées, $16–$40). Book well in advance for an old-fashioned tofu-based feast at Tofuya Ukai (4-4-13, Shiba-Koen, Minato-ku; 3436-1028; set menu, $45–$87). Those with an appetite for grilled chicken uterus, among other excellent yakitori (skewered) specialties, will find it at Toriyoshi (4-2-6 Nishi-Azabu B1, Minato-ku; 5464-0466; entrées, $25–$82).

For noodles, try the outpost of the popular Kohmen ramen chain at 7-14-3 Roppongi, in Minato-ku (6406-4565). Gyoza (dumplings) are the specialty at Kaduya, on a busy street in Meguro (3-6-1 Shimo-Meguro, Meguro-ku; 3716-2071; dumplings, $3–$4). For noodles, the Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum is a 30-minute ride on the JR Tokaido Line. At lunchtime, be prepared to stand in line at all the noodle shops; on weekends, you'll do so for the museum itself (83-4-5471-0503).

Ori Higashiya does a swank but much-abbreviated version of the ancient Japanese tea ceremony (Le Bain 1F, 3-16-28 Nishi-Azabu, Minato-ku; 5786-0024). Many of Tokyo's hard-core sake geeks like to gather at Akaoni (2-15-3 Sangenjaya, Setugaya-ku; 3410-9918), although the place I liked was Sasagin, where Mr. Sasagin himself pours from his collection of frosted green bottles (1-32-15 Uehara, Shibuya-ku; 5454-3715). Toshi Yoroizuka has two eponymous patisseries in town, the newest of which is in Tokyo Midtown (Galleria 1FD; 5413-3650). At Hidemi Sugino, a discreet pastry shop in Ginza, the fresh madeleines are packaged in shiny pink boxes (3-6-17 Capital Bridge Daiei Bldg. 1F; 3538-6780). For high-end chocolates, I like Jean-Paul Hévin (14-1 Shinjuku, 3-chome, Shinjuku-ku; 3351-7882), though if you feel like shelling out absurd amounts of cash, visit Noka, in Tokyo Midtown's Galleria (1F6; 5413-0072). You'll find an elaborate selection of stratospherically priced mangoes and assorted other boutique fruits at Sembikiya (2-1-2 Nihonbashi Muromachi; 3241-1414). Kappabashi has many plastic-food stores to choose from; the most venerable, Maiduru, has been in the same family for 75 years (1-5-17 Nishi-Asakusa; 3843-1686). For a taste of everything, visit the refurbished basement food hall at the Isetan Department Store (3-14-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku; 3352-1111).

More famous French chefs operate restaurants in Tokyo than anywhere outside Paris. The most popular dining room is at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, in Roppongi Hills. If you're feeling flush, order the $100 L'Oeuf—a single egg set in a net of pastry, served in a pool of crème fraîche and topped with Iranian caviar (Roppongi Hills Hillside, 2F; 5772-7500; entrées, $25–$102). I've heard different reports about the food at Brasserie Paul Bocuse Le Musée, in the National Art Center, but if you want to avoid lines, arrive early (7-22-2 Roppongi, 3F, Minato-ku; 5770-8161; entrées, $10–$29). For a traditional French meal in modern surroundings, reserve at Cuisine(s) Michel Troisgros a Tokyo, at the Century Hyatt (1F, 2-7-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku; 5321-3915; entrées, $47–$74).

In a city awash in Italian restaurants, the following are modestly priced and generally delicious: La Bettola da Ochiai, in Ginza (2-1-19 Kita-Aoyama, Minato-ku; 3567-5656; set menu, $32), and Il Ghiottone, where young chef Yasuhiro Sasajima cooks his pasta in kombu (salted kelp) to give it a kick (Tokyo Bldg. 1F, 2-7-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku; 5220-2006; set menu, $64–$86).

Reading

Tokyo food fashions change like the weather, and no single guidebook covers this sprawling subject in a comprehensive way. A good start is the Tokyo Food page at bento.com.

To make sense of a traditional sushi, yakitori, or kaiseki dinner, pick up What's What in Japanese Restaurants, by Robb Satterwhite (Kodansha International, $12). Theodore C. Bestor studies the world's largest fish outlet in Tsukiji (University of California Press, $26). Rick Kennedy's Little Adventures in Tokyo is 15 years old, but it's still one of the most enjoyable and quirky pocket guides to this enjoyable and quirky city (Stone Bridge Press, $15). For general information, read the Wallpaper City Guide Tokyo (Phaidon Press, $9).